And with former Panther Bryce Cartwright in the sin-bin, Maloney put Edwards through a hole before five-eighth Tyrone Peachey finished off the movement.

Asked what had inspired Maloney's purple patch over the last several weeks, coach Anthony Griffin said Cleary's injury had forced the Panthers to simplify their game plan and it had played into his hands.

"He's running our game," Griffin said.

"We were a little bit frantic early but he's a calming influence on the rest of the side. The more ball we got in the second half, the simpler our approach came.

"He led us around the park well."

Maloney ran for 128 metres, came up with two linebreaks and another two linebreak assists before topping off his day with a 72nd-minute field goal.

The only blight on his otherwise stellar afternoon was his missed conversion of Corey Harawira-Naera's first-half try, ending his run of consecutive conversions at 39.

Round 6: Penrith Panthers v Gold Coast Titans

After finishing 2017 with 16 in a row for Cronulla, kicking six straight for the Prime Ministers' XIII and another four for the Kangaroos, he fell two short of the world record jointly held by Englishmen Liam Finn and Jamie Ellis.

The afternoon started horribly for the Titans when Morgan Boyle was ruled out in the warm up following a head clash with Cartwright and it only got worse from there.

Nathan Peats (ribs), Dale Copley (hamstring) and Jai Arrow (back) all failed to see out the game.

"I'm disappointed in the result but I can't question the effort of the boys," Titans coach Garth Brennan said.

"Losing Morgan Boyle in the warm up doesn't help. The Panthers pack is a big, physical pack and we're down on size a bit when Ryan Simpkins comes in.

"The guys did a good job, I'm proud of the performance we put in but it's a tough game."